Early Pink Trees and Daffodils

Well, things are blooming a month early.  I have spied with my little eye white Lady Banks starting to bloom and the saucer magnolias are out full bore at this point.  We haven't had even what we would call a winter down here, and I can't help myself... I'm delighted.  Nothing like a few extra months of 60s and 70s, no?

Here's a few pictures from around my neighborhood yesterday, come take a January walk with with me:

On the sidewalk..those Lady Banks are about to break

Saucer Magnolias are VERY early...

Of course the camellias are out too

Daffodils about to break through crazy vines

And here's a more wintery looking picture, taken on my walk to work a morning last week when it was actually foggy in Charleston.  Thats a pretty rare occurrence here, anything resembling fog usually burns up by 5am in the summer, and its usually too breezy in the winter when the correct atmospheric conditions are at hand.  It happens less than once a year, I'd say.  This little lake down at the corner (an old mill pond back in the day) provided the perfect showcase.  The night before I was sitting on my upstairs porch watching it roll in, thick as a blanket.

Love & Hate Relationship With The White Garden

One of my favorite colors to wear is white...despite the pale skin and fair hair.  Maybe not the best suited but, to me, it either looks sharp and cool, or dainty and girly.  I probably own 10 white sundresses.  Or maybe 20.  2 white suits, and a few additional white jackets.

Now my house has absolutely no white walls.  Not a one.  Blue, green, even Tiffany blue and purple brown, but no white.  I would never, how boring, I think.

So in the rest of my color world its all very clear... very black and white (wink!), but in my garden I cannot make up my mind.  I both love and hate white flowers in the garden.

Love, for example, is cohesive, dreamy and like my favorite white sundress:

But the ugly side (reality) is what stops me from planting much white in my garden:

The issue is that having a moon garden would be something worthwhile for me.  My garden is at its best in March, April, October and November, when the days are short and it is twilight most weekdays before I get a chance to enjoy.   But those dead white flowers. ick. they kill me.  Nothing dies in the garden quite so ugly.

{please excuse the above use of these photos, they have been stolen off the web as inspiration many moons ago and I have no idea who to attribute them too.  If they are yours, please let me know!}

How To Root Stuff Every Time

I suspect every gardener has their thing... something that seems to come easier than to most people.  Just like real life, I guess.  You can't be good at everything, but every so often you realize that you indeed do know how to do some stuff.

As most of you know, I have just entered my 3rd year as a real gardener.  You know, with dirt and all, and I have made a lot of mistakes.  There is only so much you can learn from books and advice... eventually you just have to plant a plant, see it die and realize that it just isn't the right plant for the space!

Now in this short amount of time I have noticed that indeed I have a knack for something.  To the tune of 100% success at doing this with absolutely no failures.  I suspect, like much of 'skill' it comes down to a little bit of skill and having the natural circumstances be ripe for the doing.

I can root things.  Any things.  I hear and read about so many people having trouble rooting things such as roses or camellias and I just can't imagine why because, like I said, no matter what I try and root, it roots.  Always.  I know there are lots of competing opinions on how to do this, but I'll just add in here how I do it and why I think I'm so successful at it.

What you will need:
-cutting
-small clear plastic container
-roottone
-sphagnum moss
-gallon baggie

First I start with the clear (see-through) container in which to root... something small that will easily fit in a gallon baggy.  I like to take the bottom of the either small milk containers or 16 ounce soda bottles... cut either about 3 inches deep and put a few drainage holes in the bottom.  Nothing fancy and bigger is not better.  Either for the cutting, or the container.  Take it and run in through the dishwasher.  The reason we want clear is because we want to see when the roots get established without the guesswork.

Second, after the plastic container has come out of the dishwasher, fill it to half an inch of the top with straight sphagnum moss.  Not a mix, not with a little compost, not dirt.  The reason for this is we are about to create a permanently extremely humid moist environment and we need a 100% sterile environment.  For rooting purposes, the little plants do not need nutrients.  I know that there is a lot of debate on the web about this, but let me repeat, I have 100% success this way, so I know this won't be the limiting factor.

Okay, water your container thoroughly, and leave it for a minute or two in the sink to drain a bit.   Now, go find a pencil and stick a hole in the middle of the container about 3/4 of the way down.

Next, pick up your root cutting, which should be sitting in water at this point.  Make a little diagonal cut at the bottom.  The cutting doesn't need to be more than about 5-6 inches tall.  Remove all the leaves but two.  Dip the just cut tip into roottone and immediately stick in the pencil hole and snug up the opening if there is space.  I have never not used roottone so I don't know how much help this gives, but hey, its cheap, and if it ain't broke....

Final step:  Place the entire thing in a gallon zip lock baggie, and leaving as much airspace as possible, zip it up.  Thats it.  You will not unzip it until it is a rooted plant.  Period.  Not once.  Don't do it.  I'm serious.  Leave it alone.

Pretty easy right?  The other piece of the puzzle is where to put it.  And it needs to be in a bright spot with absolutely no direct sun.  Not even for 2 minutes, or you have created an oven.  Mine all grow in my kitchen window which stays in moderate temperatures between 68-78 degrees throughout the year, and is opposite a wall that gets good sunlight, but almost all light coming through the window is reflected off of that building.  It works great.   If you grow orchids successfully, you'll realize that this is the same quality of light.  The holy grail of "rooting stuff" light.

Most things root in between 2 and 5 weeks.  Once I see roots in the container, I give it a few more days to grow a bit more, then I take it carefully out of the bag.  Often, you'll also be clued in from the new growth on top.  Water it and let it drain thoroughly, and then place it back, bagless, in the same spot for the next few days.  Check the dirt moisture every day and make sure it stays moist.   After these 2 or 3 days to acclimatize to the reduced humidity it is time to plant your new little plant in a bigger container.  I usually move up to the standard small nursery pot (5 inches) and fill with regular dirt, around the sphagnum and 'rootball' of the new plant.  I leave it in its place in the winter, or move it out into the outdoor shade during the rest of the year.  After a few weeks out in the shade, and keeping it extremely well watered, I move it to part sun, and then a few weeks later to where I think I want to plant it.  And voila. I usually keep mine in successive containers until about 6 months old, but I'm not really sure that it matters that much.  I have a Zepherine Drouhin out there that I planted while still in twig status and it's done just fine.

I guess a final note is that the cutting should happen when it best suits your climate, and clearly the plant that the cutting was taken from can't be in a dormant stage.  For some of you, thats most of the year, others, only small periods of time.  I have taken cuttings from pieces ending in a flower, one that had just finished blooming, and right before blooming.  I have had a mophead hydrangea root from the flowerhead and stem alone!  I see no difference at all in the end result, so I suspect all those rules are made up to explain away why this or that cutting didn't take.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas, and eat lots of bad-for-you stuff.  I hope for no cats in the trees, a warm fire in the hearth, and snow in places that can handle a white Christmas without causing city services to shut down for a week (like, not here please).

I wish for a perfect weather year for all of us for 2012, and wonderful perfect flowers, with well behaved bugs and a massive reduction in the squirrel population at my house through divine intervention.  I hope for rain for Texas and less rain for NJ, and a new year with no hurricanes, tornadoes, nuclear power plant melt downs, floods, or earthquakes.  I wish for peace.

No matter how many times I take this picture she looks like an evil dictator..
But Merry Christmas anyway.

So Merry Christmas to you!  And may all your dreams come true.  (unless your dreams involve squirrel proliferation).  

Last Call

Its the December garden saying goodbye til February, giving this gardener a little break from watering and weeding and clipping, and some time to daydream and plan and get the ol' garden fantasy juices flowing so I'm totally jumping the gun come Spring, and primed for another season.

Most have died, save a few roses and the evergreens.   We are 'supposed' to have a 40ish degree night here about a week from now, so all the begonias are heading indoors for another harrowing indoor season with the cat.  The last of the roses, have set their very last buds till spring too.

Bermuda's Kathleen, Last Gasps

Who'd ya think? Unstoppable, in full shade

Marie Pavie with the Star Jasmine

Marie Pavie, the most floriferous for late Fall, beating even Knockout

Sharifa Asma, being huge as only fall can create here.

I am gorgeous, and I smell good

Sharifa Asma, barely opened one.  Baseball sized blooms in the perfect weather.

When Good Yards Go Bad

I'm loving this "bad" theme here lately, so I think I'm going to start a sporadic series focusing on something I think a good deal about while shaking my head.   Bad yard taste.   And let me stop the hate mail here... I'm all for personal expression: garden gnome check, flamingo or two, check, wild garden for lawn check.  But there are some things, I believe, that happen out there to yards, that we can all agree is just.. well, there's no nice way to say this: an abomination.

So here is my first entry to the "When Good Yards Go Bad" series, its worth clicking on to get the full effect:

Replacing all grass in front yard with Yaupon...hell yeah, all of it!

I give you not two, not three, but 4 rows of yaupon holly (and a short 5th if you look close), with rows three and four having no space between each other or between row 2.   And even the two rows originally meant to flank the front walk are close to growing together.  And lets not forget there was money changing hands for someone to turn this entire front yard into meatballs.   I kid you not folks, these people, in a highly affluent neighborhood, have decided to fill their entire front yard with meatballs.   I couldn't even get the other half of them in the same picture.  They have another double row leading down the path to the back yard.   I only wish I could get the whole effect on camera like you can if you happen to come across this place in town.

I love hedge, yes I do.

Easy Plant Spotlight

I get no pleasure out of gardening being hard.  None whatever.  I know there are a few of you out there who really do buy plants that require tons of work just because they require tons of work, but the most of us end up getting these pain in the butt plants because they are different and pretty and not something you see growing in everyone else's garden.

So, after a few years of hanging out in the garden blogosphere, I have come to notice that one of my killer, "so super easy its silly" plants that I inherited from my Mother the very first month I started gardening, NEVER gets mentioned.  I mean, at all.  Like my mother and I are two of the handful of people who are growing it on Earth.  So, for some of you, do I have a treat for you: a plant that is a piece of cake, super 6+ month blooming flower bonanza that requires no care, grows in pots, or in the ground, or inside, along with other things, or by themselves, and comes in various colors... oh, and likes shade.   

Courtesy of Grumpy Gardner

And its actually a rhizome/tubery thing that you can practically just throw anywhere and shove some dirt over.   Have you guessed yet?

Its called achemines.  (ah-kem'-ma-nees).  Mine are the non hybridized originals that come with dark green leaves and dark purple flowers, but now they come in light pink, and medium pink, and every sort of purple, yellow and white.  And I saw one on the web that was white and purple.   

Mine started out as one small pot of them, hanging out in the shade.  The next year I thought, hey, lets plant some of these as dress shoes around another plant, and after another winter when the annual partner died...then there were two pots.   I upgraded the original pot to a large pot, which completely filled itself with them in a few months and bloomed all summer and most of fall.   Apparently I must have left a few of the tubers (they are small), in the original pot, and now I've got yet another pot on the rise.  

The Original

I let mine die back in the winter as I can leave them outside.  I think anyone north of here would have to pick up their pots and bring them inside (just out of the hard freezing), but that would be the extent of your work for the year on them.   As I understand it, you can even just bring them into the house and keep them a bit watered and they'll bloom all year long.   My house plants have said I suck at house plants so I don't even try.

So obviously, if you live in zone 9a and higher I wouldn't plant them in the ground as naturalizing would probably be an understatement, but otherwise I can't think of a more charming, profuse, AND DIFFERENT, shade loving plant.   Makes great hanging baskets because it's habit is about 1-1.5 feet but also the edges tend to sprawl over too as they get heavier, in a small pot this works well, and I have a circle stake in the middle of the big pot to help keep things rounded in the center.

Name: Achemines

Hardy: Zone 9a/8b

Type: Rhizome

Setting: Bright shade. Does not like direct sun, will scorch leaves

Blooming: Late spring til mid fall.

Watering: average, to slightly below average

Multiplies quickly

Bad Things (Part II)

Well, it has been a research paper that has held me up,  my anxious garden friends, not jail.  Though post graduate education is sort of like jail, come to think of it.  It seems to take forever to get out, and once you are out, you're not quite sure you can integrate into the real world.

So just a quick recap, for those of you whom I can't induce to read the first part (hint), Bad Things, Part I, exhausted from staying up the night before, due to the arsonist, and returning home with a fresh new pair of pruners,  the protagonist of this tale turned down the path of (mild)evil and decided to liberate two cuttings from their bushy homes in front of a non-abandoned church mid service..........

Before I continue, just so you can get a clearer picture of the circumstance, you need to know that I too am one of those people WHO NEVER DO STUFF LIKE THIS, not because I'm afraid of jail (that never even crossed my mind, you people really are a wee anxious, I must say!), but because I am a rule follower by nature and fall apart if I get caught doing anything.  I don't even tell white lies well.   So when I tell you my heart was pounding because so far all signs had pointed to this being a bad idea, I'm not kidding: it was pounding.

I looked to the left, I looked to the right, and saw nobody looking at the miniature parking lot with one extra administrative space, noticed nobody that looked like church personnel, then slowly, stealthily snuck into the spot.  Finally, I was committed.... or was I?  I had this herky jerky feeling as I put the car in park.. this was WRONG!  Now, not only was I about to borrow rose cuttings, but I was also PARKING ILLEGALLY!  This crime was growing exponentially!  Its like lying, you cannot just tell one lie! Now I understand how people become career criminals... it can happen in mere seconds.  Rose Rustling the gateway crime.

And, what if the m.i.a. church person came? I'd be trapped, potentially by a man of God, and then be forced to lie on top of stealing and trespassing and illegal parking!  Caught up in this moral quagmire induced anxiety, I put the car back into reverse and started to leave.  I really did, but just as quickly I reversed positions and said out loud to myself "Jess, people park in other peoples spaces all of the time.. nobody ever died of this, what is wrong with you!? Just get the (badword) roses already, you could have walked here 3 times over in this amount of time!" and then pulled once more into the space and turned the car running lights off.  Good grief, already.

Now, let me tell you something, having a Prius has more advantages than gas mileage for those sneak-thief oriented individuals.  It is totally silent if you are going under 10 mph or so.  Meaning I could hide the black car in the dimly lit space, totally on, but not looking or sounding like it, and then run out pruners aloft, get the rose cuttings, run back in, throw it in reverse, and peel out silently in seconds flat.  Its probably the best getaway car ever made, come to think of it, so at least I had that going for me.  I looked up and down the street for a car that looked suspiciously like a church mobile, and seeing none I gave myself 30 seconds, and I was off at a trot, like a pro, clicking back the pruner safety as I ran.

The bushes, which are about 7-8 feet tall were encased in shadow, and looked nothing like their daytime counterparts. I couldn't see one stem from another.   "Ah, this is finally going well, ya big wussy" I though to myself as I reached for the large bush to position the pruners. Snip.  One fell into my hand.  I reached in again, feet poised for the getaway, grabbed the bush and .... OOOOOWWWWWWWWHHHH!  I looked at my bloodied thumb.  The bush had meted its justice.  I had a mega gash in my thumb from what could only have been the worlds largest and sharpest ultra-thorn.   This by far was the worst gardening injury I have sustained thus far in life.  I am totally not exaggerating when I say it could have killed me. Yes I am, but I want drama. And holy crap: now I had left DNA on the scene! All those years of watching CSI were for naught...I am the worst criminal ever!

Run away, run away! I took my one cutting, thumb in mouth, and ran back to the Prius, and peeled (silently) out of the parking lot.  I didn't look back until I had reached the corner, the cutting tossed on the passenger seat not even in the carefully retained water.

I would love to tell you that somehow I lost my pruners in this attempt because it would be both fitting and a wonderful story ender, but sadly it wasn't the case.  I made it home, 45 seconds later, no fuzz on my tail.  Safe.

But there is a lesson in here somewhere, a real moral to the story, and just in case you haven't figured it out, this entire tale is to let you all know so you don't make the same mistake I did:

Do not pick roses in the dark.

okay okay, just kidding... and I know, I know.  I did a bad thing.